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New Ear's Eve
20 February 2016

New Ear's Eve

Cartilage is a tough bendy material that props up our facial features and is difficult to repair – but one day it could be printed to order. This computer design (left) contains instructions similar to those fed into ordinary desktop 3D printers. But printing living tissue has a huge challenge – keeping the unusual building material (rabbit chondrocyte cells) alive. A newly-developed bio-printer uses different coloured lines to guide its nozzles, dolloping patterns of support material (green, blue) around the cells (red) while bathing them in a nurturing environment. The new ear cartilage (right) is peppered with tiny channels that allow vital chemicals to flow during the next phase – when life takes over. It might seem strange that a human ear shape, printed out of rabbit cells, is next transplanted under a mouse’s skin but this allows researchers to see if established life might one day accept a freshly printed transplant.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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